The head of Rolls-Royce's aerospace division has resigned just four months after being promoted to lead the division beset by bribery and corruption allegations.

The aircraft engine maker said Mark King, who joined the company in 1986, would leave at the end of June.

Before taking on the role in January, King had led the civil aerospace division, which is at the centre of bribery allegations relating to contracts in China, Indonesia, and other markets. The majority of claims relate to the 1980s and 1990s.

RollsRoyce did not provide a reason for the surprise departure in a statement on Thursday, but a spokeswoman later said King was leaving for personal reasons. "He has been in a highly pressured job for a number of years and wants to take a break and a change of direction," she said, declining to state whether his departure was related to the alleged multimillion-pound bribery payments, which were brought to the company's attention by the Serious Fraud Office early last year.

Claims about malpractice in Indonesia were made by Dick Taylor, a former Rolls-Royce employee turned whistleblower, and include allegations that the company gave the son of Indonesia's former president $20m (£13m) and a car to persuade the national airline, Garuda, to order Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines. Rolls, which is co-operating with the SFO, has appointed Lord Gold, the City lawyer and Conservative peer, to review its compliance procedures. The chief executive, John Rishton, said the company would not tolerate improper business conduct.

Speaking at the company's annual meeting on Thursday, Rishton told shareholders it had been "particularly disappointing to discover matters of concern".

He added: "There is nothing more we can say about these matters at this stage, other than to make clear that neither I nor the board will tolerate improper business conduct of any sort and will take all necessary action to ensure compliance. This is a company with exceptional prospects and I will not accept any behaviour that undermines its future success."

Rolls-Royce and the SFO are reportedly close to reaching a civil settlement to halt the bribery inquiry. Any agreement may involve a multimillion-pound fine, but avoid criminal charges. Rolls-Royce and the SFO declined to comment.

King will be replaced by Tony Wood, head of the firm's marine business, on 13 May. Aerospace is the firm's biggest division and accounted for more than 70% of its £12.2bn revenues in 2012.

Analysts said King had been a possible future contender for the chief executive role. Howard Wheeldon, an independent defence and aerospace analyst, said: "I'm very sad to see him go. Rolls-Royce is as strong as the people it has and it has an awful lot of good people. It will move on, regrettable as the departure might appear."

The company said it was on track to report good growth in underlying profit in 2013, after a strong first quarter from its civil aerospace unit, including a $1.6bn order from IAG, the British Airways owner, for its Trent XWB engines to power 18 new Airbus A350 jets.

Rolls also announced that Iain Conn would take over as chairman of its ethics committee from Ian Strachan, who stood down as a director at the annual meeting.